Lordship Salvation
is the idea that an unbeliever must commit all areas of his life to
Christ as a condition for being saved. Another way of articulating
Lordship Salvation is, “if Jesus is not Lord of all then He is
not Lord at all.” Lordship Salvation began to significantly
enter the American evangelical community in the 1980’s through
the ministries of various prominent theologians and pastors. The
movement began with the well-intentioned concern to address too much
carnality in the Christian world. However, the proposed solution to
this legitimate concern was to increase the sole requirement for
salvation in an attempt to argue that carnal Christians were never
really saved in the first place since they had never initially
yielded to Christ’s Lordship. Sugar Land Bible Church does not
believe in or teach Lordship Salvation. For example, Position
Statement #6 in our church constitution says, “…repentance,
as in a person willfully turning from sin, cannot be a condition for
salvation.” Many people look at the Lordship controversy as
merely semantics. They believe that this issue has no real
significance for practical living or ministry. In actuality, Lordship
Salvation introduces at least five problems into the life of a
church.

First, Lordship
Salvation changes the very heart of the Gospel, which only requires a
child-like faith. There are probably somewhere between 150 to 200 New
Testament passages which singularly condition a lost person’s
salvation upon belief alone in Christ (John 3:16; 6:28-29; Acts
16:31; Rom 1:16, etc...). Belief is a synonym for faith or confidence
or trust in God’s provision. The moment a lost person exercises
trust in Christ is the moment he is saved. Lewis Sperry Chafer,
Theologian and founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, entitled this
biblical phenomenon: “Belief: God’s One Condition of
Salvation.” Why has God made salvation so simple? God has
designed salvation as a free gift (Rom 4:4). If there were some human
action to be performed beyond belief then salvation becomes something
that we do rather than what God does. Such a human insertion reduces
salvation’s free gift status by making it something we earn. In
other words, under the Lordship Salvation model, surrender or
commitment becomes a work that one does to earn salvation despite the
fact that the Scripture is clear that salvation is not by works (Eph
2:8-9; Isa 64:6). Also, God has specifically designed salvation so
that the principle of human boasting is eliminated (Rom 3:27; 4:2).
Yet, if the unsaved could do anything to merit salvation beyond
simple belief, such as commit or surrender, then he has contributed
to the salvation process and thus has something to boast over. God
cannot allow this to happen given His aversion to pride of any sort.
Lordship Salvation perverts this divine order by making salvation
something we do for God rather than something He does for us. It is
Christ who saves us rather than our surrender or commitment to Him.

Second, Lordship
Salvation places an impossible requirement upon the unsaved. The
unsaved person is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1) and thus
incapable of doing anything of spiritual value, such as obey, submit,
forsake, etc...By making these other things the conditions of
salvation rather than simply believing, obstacles are placed in front
of the unbeliever that he or she is incapable of fulfilling. The lost
are capable of doing only one thing that is pleasing to a holy God:
trusting in His provision for salvation. What then shall we make of
the numerous biblical commands for the lost to repent (Acts 2:38;
17:30; 2 Pet 3:9)? The Greek word translated repent is metanoeō.
It comes from two Greek words meta and noeō. Meta
means change, as in metamorphosis. Noeō means “to
perceive.” From the word noeō we get the English
word notion, which refers to an idea emanating from the mind. Thus,
repent or metanoeō means to change one's mind about
Christ rather than to change one's behavior in order to come to
Christ. In this sense, repentance is a synonym for faith. Position
Statement # 6 captures this idea when it says, "With respect to
salvation, repentance is a change of mind regarding the Person and
work of Christ."

Third, Lordship
Salvation ignores the possibility of a carnal Christian. If complete
commitment and yielding to Christ is an initial prerequisite for
salvation, then there is no such thing as a believer who is carnal or
not completely surrendered to Christ. Yet the Bible contains numerous
examples of carnal believers. For example, Lot, who is called
“righteous” three times (2 Pet 2:7-8), exhibits perpetual
unrighteous behavior (Gen 19:30-38). Similarly, the Corinthians are
called saints (1 Cor 1:2) yet the rest of 1 Corinthians reveals their
un-saintly behavior. Thus, Paul refers to them as carnal believers (1
Cor 3:1-3). While carnal Christianity is obviously not God's perfect
will for His children, such a categorization is a legitimate
possibility.

Fourth, Lordship
Salvation confuses sanctification with justification. After coming to
Christ, God issues another call for His children to pursue practical
sanctification or discipleship. For example, those whom Christ called
to be His disciples, like Peter, were already believers (Matt
16:24-25). We see the same salvation pattern at work through Old
Testament Israel. First, the nation was redeemed through the Passover
Lamb and then, sometime later, the nation was put under the Mosaic
Law for purposes of sanctification (Exod 19:1ff). Thus, submission to
Christ's Lordship is a prerequisite for this second step of
sanctification rather than for the initial step of justification.
Therefore, the Scripture teaches Lordship Sanctification rather than
Lordship Salvation. Lordship Salvation confuses this two-step
approach by reading the principles for sanctification back into what
is required for justification. In other words, what is the result of
salvation mistakenly becomes the initial requirement for salvation.
This mistake is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse.

Fifth, Lordship
Salvation destroys the believer's assurance of salvation. Lordship
advocates never precisely define what kind of commitment to Christ is
necessary in order to become a Christian. How much surrender is
required? How long is this surrender to last? How much fruit must
this surrender produce? Because these questions are never precisely
answered, the believer spends the rest of his Christian life
wondering if he truly made enough of a commitment to become a
Christian. Because of the believer's potential for “backsliding,”
the Christian can never really know until his dying day if he is a
committed Christian. Thus, Lordship Salvation steals the joy that
accompanies the knowledge that one's eternal destiny is sealed. Far
from such a guessing game, Christ gives all believers instantaneous
assurance of salvation at the point of justification (John 5:24;
6:47).

In sum, although
Lordship Salvation represents the right diagnosis of a problem, it
holds out as the solution the wrong cure. The remedy for carnal
Christianity is preaching more aggressively on the manifold blessings
that accompany the sanctified life and the importance of the
Spirit-filled life (Eph 5:18) so as to avoid the prospect of
forfeiting rewards at the Bema Seat (1 Cor 9:24-27; 2 John 8; Rev
3:11). Let us hold out these genuine cures for carnal Christianity
rather than embrace the false cure of Lordship Salvation. Such a
false cure fundamentally alters the Gospel, which is the best news
that God ever gave man.